Fitzpatrick to coach Victoria women's team

Last season Cathryn Fitzpatrick was the player of the WNCL finals - next season she will be coaching Victoria © Getty Images Enlarge

Cathryn Fitzpatrick has been given her first permanent coaching position, taking the reins of Victoria Spirit for 2007-08. Fitzpatrick, who retired as a player after the quadrangular series in India in February and March, will become the first woman to coach the Victoria women's team.

Her appointment comes less than a fortnight after her former Australia team-mate, Lisa Keightley, also ended the male-dominated run of senior coaches for the Australia women's squad. Fitzpatrick was briefly the national side's stand-in coach until Keightley was given the job.

Fitzpatrick, who quit the game after playing 13 Tests and 109 one-day internationals, has spent the last two years as a scholarship coach at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. There, she worked with both the Australian men's and women's sides as well as several Victorian youth squads.

"I feel that my time at the Centre of Excellence has given me the platform I need to coach at a senior level," Fitzpatrick said. "I have received terrific mentoring from the likes of Tim Nielsen, Jamie Siddons and Brian McFadyen."

The loss of several senior players - including herself - from the Victoria Spirit lineup means Fitzpatrick will be guiding a young side next season. Victoria lost the 2006-07 WNCL finals to New South Wales. "We will have a relatively young squad but that is exciting as it will provide opportunity for players at the top level, not just in the one-day format but also the new Twenty20 fixtures," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick was Victoria's most-capped player with 103 appearances, took a record 198 state wickets and was the world's most successful bowler in ODIs, with 180 victims. She takes over from Ken Davis, who coached Victoria Spirit from 2002-03 until last season.